


Doctor Scarlet

by Pelican



Category: Anna Dressed in Blood - Kendare Blake
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Haunted Places, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-19
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-21 14:05:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/598586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pelican/pseuds/Pelican
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taking place before the events of the first novel, Cas finds himself in an abandoned insane asylum battling one of the doctors who never left the place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doctor Scarlet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sadlikeknives](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadlikeknives/gifts).



Belleville Asylum for the Insane was not a cheerful place. The decaying building had clearly seen better days but even back during its heyday, the asylum was not a place you wanted to end up. It was one of _those_ places where instead of actually helping people the doctors and administrators were more interested in cruel and inhumane practices. They tortured people – innocent victims – all the name of science. When it became publicly known what going on at Belleville Asylum the place was shut down. But not everyone left.

Cas' footsteps echoed down the empty all. Cas was sick of the place. It wasn't that it freaked him out – there wasn't much that freaked him out anymore - the place was simply annoying with all the ghosts. Cas couldn't help but see them everywhere.

Most of the ghosts were harmless. Cas wasn't there for them. The one he was there for was called 'the Doc'. He was a former doctor of the place and one of the biggest instigators for experimenting on patients. After the asylum had closed he was charged for his inhumane practices. There was little doubt of what he had done but before the trial could begin, he returned to the asylum and killed himself. Since then he haunted the place, still trying to perform experiments on those unfortunate enough to wander across his path. The asylum was a popular place for those seeking ghosts or simply a desire to be scared. What they would find was the Doc and they would be lucky to escape with their lives.

It was not Cas first trip into the asylum but he had yet to see the Doc. Cas started the job almost a month ago and he had expected for the job to be an easy in and out one. No one had told him however about the clown. It was a nasty and unexpected surprise and Cas' mother had not been happy when he returned home with those wounds.

The clown wasn't actually a clown but instead a child-size doll dressed as a clown. It was a toy one of the patients had left behind and it was a chilling reminder that it was not just adults but also kids who were forced to be at the place.

Cas had found the clown doll one of the upper rooms during his first night investigating the place. At first he had thought nothing of it; in fact he would have left it alone if it hadn't tried taking his head off. Once that happened, Cas knew he had to deal with it.

The clown doll turned out to be some demon – which one Cas didn't know – which had been drawn to asylum due to the sheer evilness of the place and had possessed the doll. The impression Cas got was that the demon had been there since before the place closed but no one had noticed. The demon only liked showing himself to certain individuals. Cas was one of the 'special' ones who were 'lucky' enough to be paid a visit by the demon.

Whatever the demon had been, it had died easily enough under the blade of Cas' knife. Cas had been glad to see it go. He didn't want to think about what kind of torment it had done to the child who lived in the room when the asylum was still open. With a demon haunting it, no wonder the child had been insane.

Other trips into the asylum hadn't been as eventful as that first night but they also hadn't been successful. The Doc was nowhere to be seen and Cas was rapidly out of time. There were other jobs he needed to do and Belleville Asylum was taking too much of his time.

Cas felt his pocket for his knife as he approached the basement lab. The place had been the Doc's favourite place for experimenting when he was alive and it was where he had killed himself. Most of the sightings were from there but Cas had already investigated it on his other trips to the asylum without success. It was enough to discourage Cas but he had a feeling that night he would be lucky. He had learned to trust his feelings.

The first time Cas had pushed open the doors he was struck by how small the room was, now though he was use to it. The Doc could have had any room in the place but he had selected a small room in the basement. Later Cas realized the Doc liked the small space. It allowed him to intimidate and control his patients. Plus it made the screams sound louder. The man was a freak.

Various broken and discarded equipment had been shoved against the walls. The only thing Cas was able to recognized was the operating table. Warn leather straps would hold the patients down while the Doc did whatever he wanted to them and all they could do was scream. On the left wrist strap there were fingernail scratches. It was an eerie reminder that someone had unsuccessfully tried to escape.

Cas knew what he had to do but he certainly wasn't looking forward to it.

Again Cas touched his knife in his pocket to reassure himself it was still there. Cas didn't know what he would do without it. It was comfort and it was a reminder of the power he possessed to defeat unnatural creatures like the Doc.

With a deep breath, Cas laid down on the table. He didn't dare to strap myself down. The decayed leather likely wouldn't have held him down if something happened but he didn't want to take any chances. Cas wasn't going to do anything stupid.

Closing his eyes, Cas mentally counted to ten. When he open them again the Doc was standing above him, peering down at him, making Cas feel a slab of meat.

The Doc was exactly how Cas expected him. He had on a white coat that doctors normally wore and what hair he had left was unkept. It was the smile on his face that caught Cas off guard and chilled him. It was a fake smile, Cas knew it. He was pretending to try and make Cas be at ease. Cas felt the horror that all his patients must have felt. Even with their mental state they would have known the Doc was about to do nothing to help them become better.

"What a good boy you are," the Doc said. "Now lay still and I'll make the pain go all away."

_Fuck you, you freak,_ Cas thought. There was no way he would lie still while the Doc had his way with him. The Doc's reign of terror was going to end that night.

Cas struggled to get up off the operating table but found myself unable to. The Doc had strapped him down when Cas' eyes had been closed. Cas was stuck and there was no way for him to escape.

"This won't hurt," the Doc said as he lifted up a scalpel. "In fact it'll make you feel a whole lot better."

"But I'm not in pain," Cas argued as he pulled at the straps. He decided that reasoning with the Doc was his best bet. Cas knew the Doc experimented on patients but perhaps he would be willing to let someone he considered sane go. "You have the wrong person. I'm just here visiting my brother."

It was a lie. Cas had no brother but the Doc didn't know that and it sounded better than friend. No one but family members would have been allowed inside the place visiting patients.

"I wandered away from my parents while we were visiting him," Cas said as he continued making stuff up. He tried making his voice sound as innocent and panicky as he could, but it was a difficult task. "I'm sorry. okay. I won't tell."

The Doc however wasn't buying it. "It's not nice to tell lies. I'll make sure that part of you goes away."

"I'm not lying. He's in Room 378." That was the room where Cas had found the demon clown doll.

The Doc paused and Cas realized that someone had known that there was something off about that room. For all Cas knew, one of the Doc's experiments was the reason why the demon ended up in the doll. It wouldn't have surprised him if that had been true. He had read all the information he could find on the Doc though and he could find nothing that said the doctor was into occult things. The Doc either kept that side of him hidden or he really had nothing to do with the demon beyond knowing it existed.

The knowledge that the Doc knew about the demon only made Cas angrier with him. The Doc had known there was a demon in that room but he did nothing about it. Yes, Cas reasoned, it was a demon and normal people didn't know how to deal with them but the Doc at least could have moved the kid who had been in the room to another one. Cas knew why that hadn't happened though. Even if the Doc hadn't called the demon he probably had wanted to see what the demon would do.

Cas repeatedly tugged at the leather straps until his left wrist finally broke free. He then said a silent 'thank you' to the patient who had damaged it a long time ago. That patient had just saved his life.

Cas groped for his knife – which wasn't an easy task since he had to reach across his body – and he was lucky the Doc didn't try to stop him. Cas suspected that the Doc was too stunned. No one had ever escaped from him before once he had them tied down.

With the knife finally free, Cas cut the other leather straps. He was just in time too since the Doc had recovered from his shock. His entire complexion changed. The human face faded away leaving a green ghoul.

"You're ruining my experiment!"

That seemed to upset him more than anything. He flew at Cas as he rolled off the operating table. Cas knew the Doc intended to kill him - probably in a gruesome way too. The Doc was determined to cut Cas open and see exactly what was inside of him. It was something that Cas definitely did not want.

The Doc came at Cas again, causing Cas to duck under the operating table, putting it between him and the vile doctor. Physical objects however were no longer able to stop him, he flew through the table with ease, his arms outstretched towards Cas' throat. Cas could feel the ghostly touch against his skin. It was enough to make normal people flee, but Cas wasn't normal and there was only one way to stop the Doc.

The Doc screamed as the athame made contact with him. Knowing he now had an advantage, Cas plunged the knife further into the Doc's ghostly body, which caused the Doc to scream louder. His clawed hand gripped Cas' arm in an attempt to dislodge him but Cas would not let go. He was going to make sure the Doc never harmed anyone ever again.

Smoke began frizzling off the Doc and then shortly all that was left was a pile of goo. The small lab had finally seen its last victim.

Cas cradled my arm. He had been careless but the arm was still useable so it wasn't broken. His mother would deal with it later, even though Cas wasn't looking forward to it.

With the Doc gone, there was no reason to stay at the Belleville Asylum for the Insane. There would be no more surprises from the place. After the encounter with the demon doll Cas had made sure that he searched thoroughly through the place for any other evil that had been left behind but he had found none. The asylum was safe for any thrill seekers, amature ghost hunters and anyone else dumb enough to go inside. The remaining ghosts wouldn't harm anyone, there was no need to hunt them.

Cas' job was finished.


End file.
